Masatsugu Asakawa is the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Chairperson of ADB’s Board of Directors. He was elected President by ADB’s Board of Governors and assumed office on 17 January 2020.

He previously served as Special Advisor to Japan’s Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, and has a close-to-four decades’ career at the Ministry of Finance with diverse professional experiences that cut across both domestic and international fronts.

In the immediate aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, Mr. Asakawa, in his capacity as Executive Assistant to Prime Minister Taro Aso, took part in the first G20 Leaders’ Summit Meeting in November 2008. He was instrumental in orchestrating a globally coordinated financial package to abate the financial crisis, including a $100-billion loan from Japan to the IMF. Then in 2016, in his capacity as Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs, he took on a leading role for the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in Sendai under the Japanese presidency, where sustainable and inclusive development agenda was extensively discussed.

Most recently, he served as Finance Deputy for the G20 meetings under the Japanese Presidency, playing a pivotal role for the success of the G20 Osaka Summit as well as the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in Fukuoka. Some of his outstanding achievements in Osaka include endorsement by the G20 Leaders of the “G20 Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment” and the “G20 Shared Understanding on the Importance of UHC Financing in Developing Countries”. Before all this, he had occupied various prominent positions within the Finance Ministry, including director positions in charge of development policy issues, foreign exchange markets and international tax policy.

Mr. Asakawa’s professional experience extends beyond the realms of the Japanese Government. Most notably, he served as Chief Advisor to ADB President Kimimasa Tarumizu between 1989 and 1992, during which he spearheaded the creation of a new office that focuses on strategic planning. Also, he had frequent engagement with the OECD in such positions as Chair for Committee on Fiscal Affairs (2011–2016). Furthermore, he was a senior staff at the Fiscal Affairs Department of IMF (1996–2000).

In the meantime, he gave lectures as Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Economic Science, Saitama University (2006–2009), and at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo (2012–2015).

Mr. Asakawa obtained his BA from University of Tokyo (Economics Faculty) in 1981, and MPA from Princeton University, USA, in 1985.

Carlos G. Dominguez is the Secretary of the Department of Finance of the Philippines and also an Asian Development Bank Governor.

Mr. Dominguez has over 40 years of experience and an outstanding track record of achievements at the helm of various organizations in the public and private sectors.

His expertise was borne out of his experiences as a shareholder, board chairman and a member of over a dozen corporations across power, agriculture, mining, banking, hospitality, real estate, and investment.

Mr. Dominguez was appointed as Cabinet Secretary thrice: as Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources (1986–1987), Secretary of Agriculture (1987–1989), and currently as Secretary of Finance since 2016.

Under his leadership, the Department of Finance was able to draft and introduce to Congress the first of a series of the Duterte administration’s proposed tax reform packages known as the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act less than 90 days from the time he assumed the Cabinet portfolio in July 2016. President Rodrigo Roa Duterte signed into law the TRAIN Act on 19 December 2017. This was followed by other successes in the legislature—such as the passage of the Tax Amnesty Act, the Tobacco Tax Reform Law, and a new Sin Tax Reform Law, which raised excise taxes on alcohol and electronic cigarettes.

On his watch, the Philippines’ key revenue agencies—the Bureaus of Internal Revenue (BIR) and of Customs also continue to achieve strong revenue growth rates. It was also under his leadership that the BIR was able to secure its largest tax settlement ever—amounting to about $600 million—from a single taxpayer in Philippine history.

Indranee Thurai Rajah is a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office of Singapore. She is also Second Minister for Finance and and Second Minister for National Development, as well as a Leader of the House for the 14th Parliament. She has been a Member of Parliament for the Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency since 2001.

She was a practicing lawyer and a Senior Counsel before joining the government.

Under her law portfolio from 2012 to 2018, she co-chaired the Committees on Family Justice, the formation of the Singapore International Commercial Court, as well as the Committee to Strengthen Singapore as an International Centre for Debt Restructuring. She also co-chaired the Penal Code Review Committee whose recommendations led to major amendments of the Penal Code, including greater protection for women and the vulnerable.

In her first tour of the Education Ministry from 2012 to 2015, she led the Applied Study in Polytechnics and ITE Review (ASPIRE) Committee resulting in the setup of SkillsFuture, a national movement to align education with economic demand, career guidance, and lifelong learning. In her second stint from 2018 to 2020, Ms. Rajah chaired UPLIFT—“Uplifting Pupils in Life and Inspiring Families Taskforce"—an inter-agency team convened in 2018 to strengthen support for students from disadvantaged families.

Under her finance portfolio, Ms. Rajah co-chaired the Working Group on Legal and Accounting Services, a sub-committee of the 2016 Committee on the Future Economy, the recommendations of which are aimed at transforming the legal and accounting industries in Singapore and catalyzing the internationalization of such professional services. She oversees Infrastructure Asia, the Singapore government platform that connects infrastructure demand and supply in the region.

In the Prime Minister’s Office, Ms. Rajah oversees the National Population and Talent Division and assists Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean on population matters.

Budi Gunadi Sadikin is the Minister of Health of Indonesia, a position he assumed in December 2020.

Mr. Sadikin began his career in 1988 as Information Technology Officer at IBM's Asia-Pacific Headquarters in Tokyo. He worked at IBM until 1994, eventually becoming Manager of Systems Integration & Professional Services.

He then joined PT Bank Bali Tbk. and stayed until 1999. He held various managerial roles, including General Manager of Electronic Banking, Chief General Manager of the Jakarta Region, and Chief General Manager of Human Resources.

Mr. Sadikin then moved to ABN AMRO Bank Indonesia, where he stayed until 2004. He was eventually named Director of Consumer and Commercial Banking (Senior Vice-President) for ABN AMRO Bank Indonesia & Malaysia.

He then joined PT Bank Danamon Tbk. as Head of Consumer Banking (Executive Vice-President) and later Director of Adira Quantum Multi Finance.

In 2006, he joined Bank Mandiri Tbk. as Director of Micro & Retail Banking. He was named President Director in 2013 and stayed until March 2016.

Between 2016 and 2017, he served as Senior Advisor to the Minister of State-Owned Enterprises and was later appointed as the Chairman of PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Persero).

Between September 2017 and November 2019, he served as the Group Chief Executive Officer of Mining Industry Holding Company, PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Persero), comprised of PT Aneka Tambang Tbk., PT Bukit Asam Tbk., PT Timah Tbk., and PT Freeport Indonesia.

Mr. Sadikin then served as Vice Minister I of State-Owned Enterprises and was tasked to establish market-leading and globally competitive state-owned enterprises. In July 2020, he was appointed as head of the National Economic Recovery and Transformation Task Force amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia.

He holds various positions in professional organizations, including the Indonesian Bankers Association, Acquiring Business Executive Council of VISA Asia Pacific, SWIFT Asia-Pacific Advisory Group, and the Association of Indonesia FinTech Startup Companies.

Mr. Sadikin graduated in 1988 from Bandung Institute of Technology with a degree in nuclear physics. He received his certification as a Chartered Financial Consultant and Chartered Life Underwriter from the Singapore Insurance Institute in 2004.

He also participated in executive education programs, including Strategic Thinking and Management for Competitive Advantage Program, Wharton University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 2008; Executive Training Global Strategic Management, Harvard Business School, 2009; Executive Education Venture Capital Executive Program, University of California, Berkeley, 2010; Executive Education Interpersonal Dynamics for High-Performance Executives, Stanford Graduate School of Business, 2011; and Executive Education Risk Management in Banking, INSEAD, 2012.

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is the United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).

Prior to joining UNESCAP, Ms. Alisjahbana was Professor of Economics at Universitas Padjadjaran in Bandung, Indonesia, a position she assumed in 2005. She joined Universitas Padjadjaran as a lecturer in 1988. Since 2016, she has served as Director for the Center for Sustainable Development Goals Studies at Universitas Padjadjaran and Vice-Chair of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences.

She also serves on the Governing Board of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), and member of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences (Akademi Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia–AIPI), the Forum of Statistics Community (Forum Masyarakat Statistik or Advisory Council of the Indonesian Statistics), the International Advisory Board of the Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, and Council Member of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI).

From 2009 to 2014, she was Minister of National Development Planning and the Head of the National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS), Indonesia. She served as Co-chair of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation from 2012 to 2014. From 2009 to 2014, she was Alternate Governor of the World Bank and Alternate Governor of the Asian Development Bank, representing Indonesia. In 2016, she was a member of the High Level Independent Team of Advisors to support the ECOSOC Dialogue on the longer term positioning of the United Nations Development System in the context of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development.

Ms. Alisjahbana has been involved in various research projects and consultancies to the United Nations University/Institute for Advanced Study in Tokyo, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Australia, the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), the European Commission, and the International Labor Organization (ILO).

Ms. Alisjahbana earned her Bachelor degree in Economics and Development Studies from Universitas Indonesia, Indonesia, a Masters degree in Economics from Northwestern University, USA and a PhD in Economics from University of Washington, USA. She was awarded the Mahaputra Adipradana Order (Bintang Mahaputra Adipradana) from the Republic of Indonesia, honorary brevet from the Indonesian Navy, and honorary flight wing from the Indonesian Air Force.

Jerome H. Kim, M.D., is the Director General of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) and an Adjunct Professor at the Graduate School of Public Health, Yonsei University Seoul, Republic of Korea.

He served as the Principal Deputy at the U.S. Military HIV Research Program as well as the Chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Virology and Pathogenesis and the Project Manager of the HIV Vaccines Project Management Office of the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activity.

Dr. Kim was a Professor at the Department of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. He led the Army’s Phase III HIV vaccine trial (RV144), the first demonstration that an HIV vaccine could protect against infection, as well as subsequent studies that identified laboratory correlates of protection and sequence changes in breakthrough HIV infections after vaccination.

Dr. Kim graduated from the Yale University School of Medicine in 1984 and completed his training in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Duke University Medical Center.

Dr. Kim has authored over 250 publications.

Jacquelline Fuller leads Google.org, a data-driven, human-focused philanthropy powered by Google.

Jacquelline joined Google in 2007 and manages a global team overseeing Google’s philanthropic work, product donations, and employee giving and volunteering. Her team invests over $200 million a year to support innovative nonprofits using technology to tackle complex global challenges and create more opportunities for everyone.

Prior to Google, Jacquelline served as Deputy Director of Global Health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. While at the Gates Foundation, Jacquelline and her family moved to Delhi, India where she launched a $300-million health initiative.

Jacquelline also served as a speechwriter to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from University of California, Los Angeles and a Master’s in Public Policy from the Kennedy School at Harvard University.

She serves on the board of GiveDirectly, a nonprofit organization based in Africa that helps poor families.

Richard J. Hatchett, MD, is the Chief Executive Officer of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a partnership of public, private, philanthropic and civil organizations that supports the development of vaccines against high priority public health threats and technology platforms to allow the rapid development of vaccines against emerging infectious diseases such as COVID-19.

Dr. Hatchett was previously the acting Director of the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority and served as Director of Medical Preparedness Policy on the Homeland and National Security Councils under Presidents Bush and Obama, respectively.

He received his medical degree from Vanderbilt and completed clinical training in internal medicine and medical oncology at Cornell and Duke.

Ahmed M. Saeed is the Vice-President (Operations 2) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He was appointed by ADB on 26 February 2019. Mr. Saeed is responsible for operations in the East Asia Department, the Southeast Asia Department, and the Pacific Department.

Mr. Saeed was formerly the Managing Director and Head of Public Sector for Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan at JP Morgan Chase in Dubai, UAE. He previously worked in the US Department of the Treasury as Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Middle East and Africa and as White House Fellow and Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury. He has experience working with many governments, central banks, finance ministries, and sovereign wealth funds on a broad range of economic and financial issues. Mr. Saeed holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Chicago Law School and a Master of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Dr. Myrna C. Cabotaje has broad public health background with exposure to field operations, having worked extensively in the Cordillera and Ilocos Regions and the Technical Bureau of the Department of Health in the Philippines.

She heads the task group for the Department of Health's COVID-19 Immunization Program.

Dr. Cabotaje received the following recognitions: the 9th PMA-UNILAB Dr. Jose P. Rizal Award in 1999; the UP Baguio and the UP Baguio Alumni Association Centennial Achievement Award in the field of Medical and Allied Profession in 2008; the Diego Silang Award for her contribution in attaining the Millennium Development Goal 4 in La Union in 2016; the UP Medical Alumni Society Inc. Outstanding in Community Service/Public Health Award in 2015; and the Outstanding Bridging Leader in Public Health in 2018.


Dr. Cabotaje was appointed Undersecretary of Health by President Rodrigo R. Duterte in February 2019.

Audrey Choi is Morgan Stanley’s Chief Marketing Officer and the firm’s first Chief Sustainability Officer. She serves on the firm’s Management Committee and is the founding CEO of Morgan Stanley’s industry-leading Institute for Sustainable Investing.

As Chief Sustainability Officer, Audrey oversees Morgan Stanley’s global efforts to promote sustainability through the capital markets. Over the last decade, she has been a pioneer in bringing sustainable investing into the mainstream. As Chief Marketing Officer, Audrey is responsible for stewarding the global brand to reflect the firm's core values of leading with integrity and exceptional ideas across its businesses and geographies.

In a career spanning the public, private and nonprofit sectors, Audrey has become a proven thought leader on how finance can be harnessed to protect the environment, strengthen communities, and create economic opportunity. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Audrey held senior policymaking positions in the Clinton Administration, including serving as Janet Yellen’s Chief of Staff at the Council of Economic Advisers and Domestic Policy Advisor to Vice-President Gore.

Previously, Audrey was a foreign correspondent and bureau chief at The Wall Street Journal. She serves on the boards of several national nonprofit organizations focused on sustainability, community development, and social justice. Audrey is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School. She was a Fulbright Scholar and a White House Fellow.

Dr. Bambang Susantono is the Vice-President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He is the first Indonesian in this position.

He holds a PhD in Infrastructure Planning, and has two Master’s degrees in Transportation Engineering, and City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley. He graduated from Bachelor of Engineering from Civil Engineering Department, the Bandung Institute of Technology.

Dr. Susantono is responsible for managing knowledge in ADB, and coordinating researches and studies on various topics such as energy, transport, education, health, finance, urban; and also cross-cutting nexus themes such as climate change, governance, gender, social development, environment, rural development and food security, and regional cooperation. He also coordinates ADB annual flagship publications such as the Asian Development Outlook, Key Indicators of Asia Pacific, and Asian Regional Economic Integration Report.

Prior to this, Dr. Susantono was the Acting Minister, and Vice-Minister of Transportation of Indonesia, and Deputy Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development at the Office of Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs. He was also Member of the Board for airline, port, telecommunications, and media companies.

He chaired several research institutes and taught in universities. He is actively doing research, publishes several books, and writes articles in the subject of infrastructure, transportation, urban and regional planning, sustainable development, and climate change.

Dr. Susantono received several accolades including Bintang Mahaputra Utama, Satya Lencana Pembangunan, Satya Lencana Wira Karya, Rekor MURI 2015, Sustainable Leadership Award 2018, Ganesha Widya Jasa Adiutama (ITB) 2019, Top 100 Fintech for SDG Influencer 2019.

Ming Maa is the Group President of Grab, responsible for corporate development activities, including strategic partnerships and investment opportunities, managing the company's overall capital structure, and other corporate activities.

Ming has over a decade of finance and investment experience across the United States and Asia. He joined Grab from SoftBank Group Corp., a leading global technology company and one of Grab's key strategic investors. He helped oversee SoftBank's investments in leading companies in the ride-sharing and e-commerce industries, including SoftBank's April 2015 Series D investment in Grab and additional Series F investment in September 2016.

Prior to joining SoftBank, Ming was a Principal at Ancora Capital Management Pte. Ltd. based in Jakarta. Prior to Ancora, between 2000 and 2012, Ming was Vice-President in Goldman Sachs' Merchant Banking Division, the firm's global private equity group, and was based in Tokyo, New York, and San Francisco. At Goldman Sachs, he managed investments across a wide spectrum of industries and served on the boards of several technology and media companies.

Ming received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ayesha Khanna is Co-Founder and CEO of ADDO AI, an artificial intelligence solutions firm and incubator.

She has been a strategic advisor on artificial intelligence, smart cities and fintech to leading corporations and governments. She serves on the board of Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), the Singapore government agency that develops and regulates its world-class technology sector to drive the country's digital economy and power its Smart Nation vision.

Ayesha is also a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Councils, a community of international experts who provide thought leadership on the impact and governance of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.

In 2017, ADDO AI was featured in Forbes magazine as one of four leading artificial intelligence companies in Asia. The following year, Forbes named Ayesha one of Southeast Asia's groundbreaking female entrepreneurs.

Her clients have included SMRT, Singapore's largest public transport company; Mercy, one of the largest hospital networks in the United States; Singtel, Singapore's largest telco; SOMPO, Japan's largest insurance firm; Habib Bank, Pakistan's largest bank; and Smart Dubai, the government agency tasked to transform Dubai into a leading smart city.

Ayesha serves on the Board of Sport Singapore, the lead government agency tasked with developing a holistic sports culture for the nation. In 2014, Ayesha served as a member of the Singapore's Ministry of Education steering committee resulting in SkillsFuture, the innovative national program that aligns education with economic demand, career guidance, and lifelong learning to prepare citizens for the fourth industrial revolution.

Ayesha is the Founder of 21C Girls, a charity that delivers free coding and artificial intelligence classes to girls in Singapore. Programs that 21C Girls has partnered in include Code in the Community, a program sponsored by Google that has taught coding to thousands of 8 to 14 years olds and Empower, which has partnered with Ngee Ann Polytechnic to teach 18-to-24 year-old girls the basics of artificial intelligence.

Prior to founding ADDO AI, Ayesha spent more than a decade on Wall Street developing large-scale trading, risk management, and data analytics systems. 

Ayesha co-founded the Hybrid Reality Institute, a research and advisory group established to analyze the social and economic impact of accelerating technologies.

She was featured on German TV channel ZDF's documentary “Leading Women,” which featured 12 women around the world (2019). She has been named one of Singapore's leading women in tech (Singapore Computer Society), and been recently profiled for her work in artificial intelligence in leading publications including Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland), Focus Magazin (Germany), Corriere della Sera (Italy), Dagens Næringsliv (Norway), Lëtzebuerger Journal (Luxembourg), Computer Sweden (Sweden), Information Age (Nordics), Peak (Cover Story, Singapore), and In The Black (Cover Story, Australia).

Ayesha is the author of Straight Through Processing (2008) and co-author of Hybrid Reality: Thriving in the Emerging Human-Technology Civilization (2012). She has been published and quoted on technology, innovation and smart cities in The New York Times, BusinessWeek, TIME, Newsweek, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Strategy+Business, and Foreign Policy.  She has presented at major financial, technology and other industry conferences, provided high-level government briefings, chaired symposiums such as AI Asia, and spoken at TEDx events.

Ayesha has a BA (honors) in Economics from Harvard University, an MS in Operations Research from Columbia University, and a PhD in Information Systems from the London School of Economics.

Suresh Jadhav, M.Pharm., Ph.D. is the Executive Director of the Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd.

He has 48 years of experience in quality control and assurance and good manufacturing and laboratory techniques and practices, laboratory inspection and validation of various production and quality control processes, pharma/toxicological screening of various drugs, toxins, and venoms, and drugs pricing.

He led the development and introduction of the meningococcal A conjugate vaccine in Sub-Saharan Africa, the development of seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccines, and played a major role in the Serum Institute of India’s acquisition of Dutch bioengineering and pharmaceutical firm Bilthoven Biologicals.

Dr. Jadhav is also actively involved in developing vaccines against COVID-19. He was President of the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network for 5 years and has been involved with the group since its inception. He was an alternate board member of GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, and also a member of GAVI’s Programme and Policy Committee. He is also member of the European Vaccine Initiative, FastVac, and the Health Innovation in Practice Board, among others. He was also involved in the Task Force of Sabin Vaccine Institute, the World Health Organization (WHO) Initiative for Vaccine Research Vaccine Advisory Committee, and Decades of Vaccines, among others. He is also affiliated with several Indian universities, All India Council for Technical Education, University Grants Commission, and the State Directorate of Technical Education, among others.

He is the Chairman of the Expert Committee on Vaccines and other Biologicals and also a member on the Scientific Body of Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission. He is also a member of Advisory Committee of USP for Biologicals.

He was also part of several studies on revising international reference standards for the WHO, National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, and Netherlands Vaccine Institute/National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, among others. He has published more than 100 technical papers in national and international journals.

Dr. Jadhav, who has two patents under his name, ranked 7th among the World’s 50 Most Influential People in Vaccines by Vaccinenation of Terrapinn. He was conferred the Pune Lifetime Achievement Award 2015 by the Indian Pharmaceutical Association. He was also given the District Vocational Excellence Award by Rotary for his contribution in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and was dubbed Mega COVID Warrior.

Ketsuda Supradit has been the International Economic Advisor at the Fiscal Policy Office, Ministry of Finance, Thailand since November 2018.

Prior to this, she was Minister (Economic and Finance) for the United Kingdom and Europe at the Royal Thai Embassy in London (December 2012-November 2018), Director of the ASEAN Fiscal and Financial Policy Bureau, Fiscal Policy Office, Ministry of Finance (2011-2012), Senior Expert in the Savings, Investment and Capital Market Development Bureau, Fiscal Policy Office (2010-2011), Minister-Counsellor (Economic and Finance) (2006-2010), and Director of the International Financial Cooperation Section, International and Macroeconomic Policy Bureau, Fiscal Policy Office, Ministry of Finance (2001-2005).

Ms. Supradit has an MBA from the University of Exeter, United Kingdom and a BS in Economics from the Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok.

Ramesh Subramaniam is the Director General of the Southeast Asia Regional Department of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He oversees ADB’s relationship and public sector work (including all technical assistance, knowledge generation and dissemination, and grant and loan projects) in all countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). He is also in-charge of ADB’s support for all subregional cooperation initiatives in the region, including ASEAN, Brunei–Indonesia–Malaysia–Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area, Greater Mekong Subregion, and Indonesia–Malaysia–Thailand Growth Triangle.

With ADB for over 20 years, Ramesh has worked on several projects across the Asia–Pacific region. Infrastructure financing is among his primary areas of interest. He represents ADB on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on long-term investment and infrastructure development. He has a PhD in Economics from McMaster University (Canada), and has had post-doctoral fellowships in development economics and corporate finance and industry at Yale University (USA) and University of St. Andrews (UK).

Janti Soeripto is President and Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children, an organization that gives children in the United States and around the world a healthy start, the opportunity to learn, and protection from harm.

The global Save the Children movement serves over 134 million children in the US and in 120 countries. As a global organization, Save the Children has committed to driving down the numbers of preventable deaths of children under 5, ensuring every child gets a high-quality basic education and protecting all children from harm.

She assumed the role on 1 January 2020, having served since May of 2019 as President and Chief Operating Officer of Save the Children US, a position having oversight for setting agency strategy, ensuring all parts of the organization are well managed, staffed and aligned, and operate as effectively as possible. Strengthening accountability for results, and overseeing, integrating and coordinating divisional activities (human resources, international operations, legal and risk services, information systems, finance, marketing and communications and fundraising) also fell within her scope of work.

Prior to joining Save the Children US, Janti worked for 8 years as deputy CEO of Save the Children International, where she was responsible for market growth and development, global strategy development, communication, and venture partnerships.

Before her Save the Children work, Janti spent three years with Kimberly-Clark, as Country Director in Indonesia. Immediately before this she was Managing Director for Belu in London, the first bottled water brand in a biodegradable bottle that donates all profits to charity. Previous to this, she enjoyed a 15-year career with Unilever, both in finance, as well as general management, working in the Netherlands, UK, and Singapore.

Janti graduated from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam in 1991. She is half Indonesian, half Dutch, and is married with two children.

Magnus Ekbom is part of Lazada Group’s founding team and is the Chief Strategy Officer. He is responsible for the Group’s long-term strategy development as the Southeast Asia flagship platform of Alibaba Group. He was appointed Acting Chief Executive Officer of Lazada Malaysia in 2021 in addition to his existing responsibilities.

He previously served as Chief Executive Officer for Lazada Group’s business in Indonesia until 2016. Prior to co-founding Lazada, he was working for the investment group Kinnevik and later Rocket Internet.



Magnus graduated with a B.Sc. in Business & Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics.

Ruth Karron, M.D., is a Professor of International Health in the Bloomberg School of Public Health with a joint appointment in the Department of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Karron is a pediatric infectious diseases physician, virologist, and vaccinologist, and is Director of the Center for Immunization Research and the Johns Hopkins Vaccine Initiative.

Dr. Karron has substantial experience in the evaluation of respiratory virus vaccines in adult and pediatric populations.

Dr. Karron’s research interests also include the development of immune responses to respiratory viral infections in early life, the epidemiology of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and other respiratory viral diseases in low resource settings, and public policy and ethical issues related to vaccine development and distribution.

She co-led the Pregnancy Research Ethics for Vaccines, Epidemics, and New Technologies (PREVENT) Working Group, which released “Pregnant Woman & Vaccines Against Emerging Epidemic Threats: Ethics Guidance for Preparedness, Research and Response”, a guidance document with specific actionable recommendations to ensure that pregnant women are no longer excluded from receiving vaccines against emerging infectious diseases.

Dr. Karron has served on a number of national and international vaccine advisory committees and panels, including the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), and the FDA Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), which she chaired from 2006 to 2008. She is currently a member of the WHO Product Development for Vaccines Advisory Committee (PDVAC), the Gavi Vaccine Innovation Prioritisation Steering Committee (VIPS), the COVAX ACT-acclerator COVID vaccine Maternal Immunization Working Group, and chaired the Vaccines Advisory Panel for the Wellcome Trust.

In 2016, Dr. Karron received the Robert M. Chanock award for outstanding contributions to RSV research.

Dr. Patrick L. Osewe is the Chief of the Health Sector Group at the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He provides leadership on policy, technical, and operational matters. In close collaboration with the Sector Committee, he leads the application of evidence-based and innovative approaches to address priority and emerging health issues in Asia and the Pacific.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Patrick has provided leadership and guidance in the implementation of ADB’s $20-billion commitment to respond to COVID-19 and $9 billion for Developing Member Countries (DMCs) to obtain and deploy COVID-19 vaccines . His work related to COVID-19 includes providing technical assistance to operational teams and DMCs, convening global partners to reach consensus and prioritize investments, mobilizing leading private sector firms to support a range of response activities, and collaborating with the International Air Transport Association, International Civil Aviation Organization, airlines, and hotels to safely restore travel and tourism industries based on available evidence.

Prior to his time at ADB, Patrick was a Global Lead for the World Bank’s Healthy Societies Global Solutions Group. In this role, Patrick provided technical and operational guidance to countries, World Bank teams, and the global health community to address public health challenges. These included developing strategies for achieving universal health coverage (UHC), combatting the emerging burden of non-communicable diseases, and addressing health security as both an economic issue and as a major threat to achieving UHC.

Patrick has led major global and regional multi-sectoral efforts to address communicable and non-communicable diseases and built the capacity of World Bank teams and clients in the use of results-based management. He has over 25 years of experience as a global leader in health, including having previously worked for USAID and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as providing technical support to UN agencies and countries in different parts of the world.

Patrick holds an MD from the University of Nairobi and an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Melati Wijsen is the Founder of Bye Bye Plastic Bags and YOUTHTOPIA Voices.

At just 19, Melati is a change-maker. She's an accomplished public speaker with a track record of bringing real change to people’s lives and to government policy concerning sustainability. She is an enabler for youth empowerment globally.

She founded Bye Bye Plastic Bags in 2013 at the age of 12 and has been leading the movement since. Thanks to Bye Bye Plastic Bags' advocacy, the Balinese government banned the use of plastic bags, straws, and styrofoam on 23 June 2019. Bali is the first Indonesian province to enforce the ban.

Melati also founded the people's movement One Island One Voice in 2015, enjoining Bali-based businesses to come together to say NO to single-use plastics.

In 2017, Bye Bye Plastic Bags set up Mountain Mamas, a social enterprise empowering women in the mountains of Bali, to make bags out of pre-loved materials. Each woman gets paid for every bag that she makes. Half of the proceeds go back to the community for education, waste management, and health insurance, while the other half helps finance Bye Bye Plastic Bags' projects.

Melati's most recent project, YOUTHTOPIA Voices, empowers young people globally to accelerate change through education, coaching, and global sustainable platforms.

She has spoken on TED, the European Parliament in Brussels, and the United Nations in New York. She was named among Forbes top 10 most inspiring women in Indonesia, awarded CNN HEROES Young Wonders, and included in the Top 25 Most Influential Teenagers by Time magazine.

Being very passionate about protecting the ocean, she is an alumni member of the World Oceans Day Youth Advisory Council.

Melati is half Indonesian and half Dutch. She graduated from Green School Bali in 2017 and has been a full-time change-maker ever since.

Robert Guild is Chief Sector Officer of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He is responsible for ADB-wide technical collaboration, innovation, and knowledge management for sector groups in transport, energy, urban, water, education, health, and finance. He is also responsible for management and resource mobilization for 19 bank-wide trust funds covering all sectors. He has been with ADB since 2003.

Dr. Guild is an expert on infrastructure investment for social and economic development. He has advised governments, the private sector, and multilateral institutions in over two dozen countries in Asia, the Pacific, and Latin America on public investments, public-private partnerships, and national and regional development plans. He holds degrees in civil engineering, public administration, urban and regional planning, and international development.

Dr. Guild began his career as an engineer in the United States and has worked extensively for bilateral and multilateral agencies in international development. He has held faculty appointments at universities in the United States, the Pacific region, and New Zealand.

Jin Seon Park is Vice-President for Global Business Development of SK Bioscience.

She is responsible for business development and international regulatory affairs (RA) in vaccines and bioproducts outside of the Republic of Korea (ROK), including external partnerships.

Ms. Park led the licensing agreement for next-generation pneumococcal conjugate vaccines and Madin-Darby canine kidney cell-based influenza vaccine manufacturing technology with Sanofi Pasteur. She also spearheaded contract manufacturing organization agreement with Astra Zeneca and contract development and manufacturing organization and licensing agreements with Novavax for their COVID-19 vaccine production.

She and her team partner with charitable and non-profit organizations (e.g. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) for diverse vaccine programs to accelerate global public health. Her team is responsible for alliance and partnership management with partners and stakeholders (i.e. funders) for co-development and manufacturing collaboration after contract.

Additionally, she plays a role in rolling out SK Bioscience’s products and portfolio including registration and commercialization outside of the ROK.

Ms. Park joined SK Pharma in 1999. Her past roles included stints in corporate strategy and R&D planning in the pharmaceutical sector. She was also Director of Global Business Development and International RA for SK Chemicals’ pharmaceutical, vaccine, and blood derivative products.

Ms. Park earned her bachelor’s degree from Seoul National University and her master’s degree in pharmacokinetics from Seoul National University’s Pharmacy School.

Inger Ashing is Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children International.

A respected child rights activist, Inger has been associated with Save the Children for more than 25 years, first serving as a youth advocate and later on the Boards of Save the Children Sweden and Save the Children International.

Prior to her appointment in September 2019, Inger was Director General at the Swedish Agency against Segregation, a Swedish government agency, where she worked to reduce segregation and social inequality, with a special focus on improving the situation in socio-economically disadvantaged areas.  

She has also served as the National Coordinator for Youth Not in Education or Employment for the Swedish Government, Deputy Director General of the Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society and the CEO of the Global Child Forum. Inger is also a member of the Ethics Council at the Swedish Migration Agency.

She has been an expert to and board member of several authorities and committees such as the Delegation for Human Rights, the Swedish National Knowledge Centre on Violence against Children, the Delegation for the Employment of Young People and Newly Arrived Migrants, the Swedish Enforcement Authority, the National Board of Institutional Care, and the Monitoring Committee for The European Social Fund. 

You can follow her on Twitter at @IngerAshing

Kaveh Zahedi is the Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). He oversees ESCAP’s economic, social and environmental programs, including on finance, trade, energy, natural disasters, statistics, and the overall implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

He also supervises ESCAP's institutes providing technical assistance on ICT for Development (Incheon), agricultural mechanization (Beijing), statistics (Chiba), and technology transfer (Delhi). He represents ESCAP in UN coordination mechanisms, facilitates collaboration with UN Resident Coordinators and Country Teams and oversees implementation of the UN Development System reform.

Prior to this, Mr. Zahedi worked at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), including as its Regional Director and Representative for Asia and the Pacific and Deputy Director of the Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, overseeing work on green economy, resource efficiency, and climate change. He also set up and headed the Climate and Clean Air Coalition. For over 2 decades, Mr. Zahedi has worked for the United Nations in Kenya, Mexico, Thailand, and Europe.

Before joining the United Nations, Mr. Zahedi worked at an NGO as project manager for micro credit and development projects in Latin America and the Middle East. He holds a master’s degree from the Fletcher School, Tufts University, US, and a BSc first class degree in Economics & Geography, from University College London.

Lisa Oake is the former co-host of CNBC Asia’s top-rated morning program Squawk Box. She has 20 years of experience covering global economics, business and politics. She has conducted thousands of interviews with CEOs, central bank governors, and heads of state. Lisa was the first journalist to report live from the trading floor of the Singapore Exchange and to interview the President of Indonesia after the devastation of the 2004 tsunami.

Sri Jegarajah is a CNBC Senior Correspondent based in Singapore. An experienced business and financial markets correspondent who specializes in commodities since 1997, Sri follows global energy developments closely.

Covering financial markets for more than 15 years, Sri has reported on major global events including the 2016 Jakarta attacks, 2008 financial crisis, the Indian Ocean tsunami, and the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami disaster from Tokyo.

He twice received the Bronze Medal in 2009 and 2013 for Best News Correspondent by the New York Festivals International TV & Films Awards.

Prior to joining CNBC in 2005, Sri was an energy reporter for Dow Jones Newswires and Bloomberg News in Singapore.